A few years ago I joined Kiva with $50. In all the time the money has been on loan, it has ALWAYS been repaid. Once notified of the repayment, I pick another person to receive the money. There is a lot of help needed in this world and what little I can do, I do.

I am now widowed and living on a very, very small pension but while I believe in helping wherever I can, even $25 is too much at this time.

I always advocate rewriting to give the content your own voice and avoid any chance of plagiarism, but technically that would work most of the time yes.

Hey Jon,

Thanks for the opportunity to make a contribution to a good cause via Kiva. My loan was made in the amount of $25.00 plus a $3.75 donation to the Kiva organization. I hope to be able to do more in the future, but for now the important thing is having taken the first step.

The second order of business is to take a look at the content-building tool you you spoke of. This was a great motivation you used to get people to take a look at Kiva, so it seems that it is just as important to get the tool so I can use it as a talking point for others to learn about (and hopefully support) a good cause. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks again.

If I can make a suggestion? The only thing I would improve out of this process, would be to make the processing time faster for the Tip Builder download and password. Yes, I know that is not the important thing here (it's helping others). However, it would be nice to have an immediate download, as opposed to waiting on a ticket to be processed by a human.

I'd love that, but since I don't own or control Kiva I have no way of knowing when you've made the donation other than you submitting your receipt to the help desk, who has to verify it as a real receipt (yes there are people low enough to try and fake that kind of thing, even if it's a good cause).

Great idea and it was the nudge I needed to actually get around to donating. Now I'm really looking forward to getting the tool. Any idea on the turn around time for tickets? I sent in my ticket early this morning.

KIVA is a great organization! I've been aware of its existence for some time. Thanks for the "nudge."

Helping hard working people in other parts of the world is the most effective act of charity (and foreign aid). I've made several direct contributions. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. My current project is helping a free lance tour guide in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam. I spent $10 on a domain name and added it to my hosting account. I then spent a few hours building the website (using WordPress). Bao Loc is the guide's name. His website, http://www.privatevietnamtourguide.com, has been up for a little over a year. He gets 4-5 inquiries some days. Business is booming! I put some Adsense and Amazon ads on the site and that covers the annual domain name fees and helps with the hosting.

I see there are a few crafts people and groups on Kiva, maybe they could use a website to market their products. Any takers?

Any suggestions on site design or how to further monetize the site would be appreciated. Same for my personal site: yourvietnamtourguide.com: